Conroe officials say nearly 300 homes were damaged as Hurricane Harvey drenched the area, while the city will be spending more than a million dollars for equipment to repair the city's flooded sewage treatment plant.

Before a special meeting of the City Council began Tuesday morning, Mayor Toby Powell told The Courier about 280 homes in Conroe were damaged by floodwaters during the deluge, which brought record rainfall, as well as a record-breaking rate of water being released from Lake Conroe. Separately, officials say an estimated 454 homes were damaged in the River Plantation area, which is outside of Conroe's city limits.

The majority of homes damaged in Conroe were in the McDade Estates, Artesian Forest neighborhoods and near Lake Conroe, according to Powell. City officials on Tuesday were still compiling damage estimates.

"We don't have a dollar figure at this point," Powell said.

Besides damaging homes, floodwaters also swamped Conroe's wastewater facility, causing what the city is describing as "widespread and major damage" to the plant's pumps, machinery and electrical systems.

During Tuesday's special meeting, the City Council approved spending $750,000 for generators and transfer switches and another $327,820 for four pumps at the plant. Three of the new pumps will replace damaged pumps, while a fourth pump was due to be replaced before Harvey.

Despite being under about 10 feet of water, city officials say the plant is running and operating.

"We dried it out and had it up and running in 3-1/2 days," Conroe Public Works Director Norm McGuire told the council. "I think that is absolutely remarkable."

Tuesday's council meeting, arguably a critical meeting after the damage caused by Harvey, was about an hour late in getting started because of a lack of a quorum on the council.

Scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., the scene as the meeting was delayed was more reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, rather than a Conroe City Council meeting.

Several minutes after the scheduled start time, the handful of mostly city employees in council chambers sat around and talked, while Mayor Toby Powell, Councilman Seth Gibson and Councilman Gil Snyder also sat, apparently waiting for one or more of their colleagues to show up, with Powell having at one conversation on his cell phone.

"I want to apologize, we don't have a quorum right now," the mayor announced at 9:44. "Councilman (Duane) Ham has been delayed. He should be here in about an hour."

When Ham did show up at 10:30, dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and baseball cap, the meeting got started.

"I'm helping a big recovery," Ham said after the meeting. "I've been doing recovery for four or five days, now I'm helping to rebuild."

Mayor Pro Tem Duke Coon later told The Courier by phone that he missed the meeting because of a previously planned business matter, although he said he has received updates on the sewer plant.

Councilman Guy Martin did not immediately return an email seeking comment about his absence, but Powell said Martin missed the meeting because of a medical issue.